The cybersecurity world is stuffed with technical lingo and jargon. At TechCrunch, we now have been writing about cybersecurity for years, and even we generally want a refresher on what precisely a selected phrase or expression means. That’s why we now have created this glossary, which incorporates a few of the commonest — and never so widespread — phrases and expressions that we use in our articles, and explanations of how, and why, we use them.
It is a growing compendium, and we’ll replace it often.
A complicated persistent menace (APT) is usually categorized as a hacker, or group of hackers, which beneficial properties and maintains unauthorized entry to a focused system. The principle intention of an APT intruder is to stay undetected for lengthy intervals of time, typically to conduct espionage and surveillance, to steal knowledge, or sabotage important methods.
APTs are historically well-resourced hackers, together with the funding to pay for his or her malicious campaigns, and entry to hacking instruments usually reserved by governments. As such, lots of the long-running APT teams are related to nation states, like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. In recent times, we’ve seen examples of non-nation state cybercriminal teams which might be financially motivated (equivalent to theft and cash laundering) finishing up cyberattacks comparable by way of persistence and capabilities as some conventional government-backed APT teams.
(See: Hacker)
The flexibility to run instructions or malicious code on an affected system, typically due to a safety vulnerability within the system’s software program. Arbitrary code execution could be achieved both remotely or with bodily entry to an affected system (equivalent to somebody’s machine). Within the circumstances the place arbitrary code execution could be achieved over the web, safety researchers usually name this distant code execution.
Usually, code execution is used as a option to plant a again door for sustaining long-term and chronic entry to that system, or for working malware that can be utilized to entry deeper elements of the system or different units on the identical community.
(See additionally: Distant code execution)
Hackers traditionally have been categorized as both “black hat” or “white hat,” often relying on the motivations of the hacking exercise carried out. A “black hat” hacker could also be somebody who would possibly break the regulation and hack for cash or private acquire, equivalent to a cybercriminal. “White hat” hackers usually hack inside authorized bounds, like as a part of a penetration take a look at sanctioned by the goal firm, or to gather bug bounties discovering flaws in numerous software program and disclosing them to the affected vendor. For many who hack with much less clearcut motivations, they could be considered a “grey hat.” Famously, the hacking group the L0pht used the time period grey hat in an interview with The New York Instances Journal in 1999. Whereas nonetheless generally utilized in trendy safety parlance, many have moved away from the “hat” terminology.
(Additionally see: Hacker, Hacktivist)
Botnets are networks of hijacked internet-connected units, equivalent to webcams and residential routers, which were compromised by malware (or generally weak or default passwords) for the needs of being utilized in cyberattacks. Botnets could be made up of a whole lot or hundreds of units and are usually managed by a command-and-control server that sends out instructions to ensnared units. Botnets can be utilized for a spread of malicious causes, like utilizing the distributed community of units to masks and defend the web visitors of cybercriminals, ship malware, or harness their collective bandwidth to maliciously crash web sites and on-line companies with enormous quantities of junk web visitors.
(See additionally: Command-and-control server; Distributed denial-of-service)
A bug is basically the reason for a software program glitch, equivalent to an error or an issue that causes the software program to crash or behave in an sudden manner. In some circumstances, a bug may also be a safety vulnerability.
The time period “bug” originated in 1947, at a time when early computer systems had been the dimensions of rooms and made up of heavy mechanical and shifting gear. The primary recognized incident of a bug present in a pc was when a moth disrupted the electronics of one in every of these room-sized computer systems.
(See additionally: Vulnerability)
Command-and-control servers (also called C2 servers) are utilized by cybercriminals to remotely handle and management their fleets of compromised units and launch cyberattacks, equivalent to delivering malware over the web and launching distributed denial-of-service assaults.
(See additionally: Botnet; Distributed denial-of-service)
Cryptojacking is when a tool’s computational energy is used, with or with out the proprietor’s permission, to generate cryptocurrency. Builders generally bundle code in apps and on web sites, which then makes use of the machine’s processors to finish advanced mathematical calculations wanted to create new cryptocurrency. The generated cryptocurrency is then deposited in digital wallets owned by the developer.
Some malicious hackers use malware to intentionally compromise massive numbers of unwitting computer systems to generate cryptocurrency on a big and distributed scale.
After we discuss knowledge breaches, we in the end imply the improper removing of knowledge from the place it ought to have been. However the circumstances matter and might alter the terminology we use to explain a specific incident.
A knowledge breach is when protected knowledge was confirmed to have improperly left a system from the place it was initially saved and often confirmed when somebody discovers the compromised knowledge. As a rule, we’re referring to the exfiltration of knowledge by a malicious cyberattacker or in any other case detected because of an inadvertent publicity. Relying on what is understood concerning the incident, we might describe it in additional particular phrases the place particulars are recognized.
(See additionally: Information publicity; Information leak)
A knowledge publicity (a sort of knowledge breach) is when protected knowledge is saved on a system that has no entry controls, equivalent to due to human error or a misconfiguration. This would possibly embrace circumstances the place a system or database is related to the web however with out a password. Simply because knowledge was uncovered doesn’t imply the information was actively found, however nonetheless might nonetheless be thought of an information breach.
A knowledge leak (a sort of knowledge breach) is the place protected knowledge is saved on a system in a manner that it was allowed to flee, equivalent to as a consequence of a beforehand unknown vulnerability within the system or by the use of insider entry (equivalent to an worker). A knowledge leak can imply that knowledge might have been exfiltrated or in any other case collected, however there might not at all times be the technical means, equivalent to logs, to know for certain.
A distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, is a form of cyberattack that includes flooding targets on the web with junk net visitors to be able to overload and crash the servers and trigger the service, equivalent to a web site, on-line retailer, or gaming platform to go down.
DDoS assaults are launched by botnets, that are made up of networks of hacked internet-connected units (equivalent to residence routers and webcams) that may be remotely managed by a malicious operator, often from a command-and-control server. Botnets could be made up of a whole lot or hundreds of hijacked units.
Whereas a DDoS is a type of cyberattack, these data-flooding assaults will not be “hacks” in themselves, as they don’t contain the breach and exfiltration of knowledge from their targets, however as a substitute trigger a “denial of service” occasion to the affected service.
(See additionally: Botnet; Command-and-control server)
Encryption is the best way and means wherein data, equivalent to information, paperwork, and personal messages, are scrambled to make the information unreadable to anybody apart from to its supposed proprietor or recipient. Encrypted knowledge is usually scrambled utilizing an encryption algorithm — primarily a set of mathematical formulation that determines how the information ought to be encrypted — together with a personal key, equivalent to a password, which can be utilized to unscramble (or “decrypt”) the protected knowledge.
Almost all trendy encryption algorithms in use in the present day are open supply, permitting anybody (together with safety professionals and cryptographers) to assessment and test the algorithm to ensure it’s freed from faults or flaws. Some encryption algorithms are stronger than others, that means knowledge protected by some weaker algorithms could be decrypted by harnessing massive quantities of computational energy.
Encryption is totally different from encoding, which merely converts knowledge into a distinct and standardized format, often for the good thing about permitting computer systems to learn the information.
(See additionally: Finish-to-end encryption)
Finish-to-end encryption (or E2EE) is a safety function constructed into many messaging and file-sharing apps, and is extensively thought of one of many strongest methods of securing digital communications as they traverse the web.
E2EE scrambles the file or message on the sender’s machine earlier than it’s despatched in a manner that permits solely the supposed recipient to decrypt its contents, making it near-impossible for anybody — together with a malicious hacker, and even the app maker — to snoop inside on somebody’s non-public communications. In recent times, E2EE has grow to be the default safety customary for a lot of messaging apps, together with Apple’s iMessage, Fb Messenger, Sign, and WhatsApp.
E2EE has additionally grow to be the topic of governmental frustration lately, as encryption makes it not possible for tech firms or app suppliers to offer over data that they themselves do not need entry to.
(See additionally: Encryption)
Most trendy methods are protected with a number of layers of safety, together with the power to set consumer accounts with extra restricted entry to the underlying system’s configurations and settings. This prevents these customers — or anybody with improper entry to one in every of these consumer accounts — from tampering with the core underlying system. Nonetheless, an “escalation of privileges” occasion can contain exploiting a bug or tricking the system into granting the consumer extra entry rights than they need to have.
Malware also can reap the benefits of bugs or flaws brought on by escalation of privileges by gaining deeper entry to a tool or a related community, doubtlessly permitting the malware to unfold.
An exploit is the best way and means wherein a vulnerability is abused or taken benefit of, often to be able to break right into a system.
(See additionally: Bug; Vulnerability)
Normally phrases, extortion is the act of acquiring one thing, often cash, by way of the usage of power and intimidation. Cyber extortion isn’t any totally different, because it usually refers to a class of cybercrime whereby attackers demand cost from victims by threatening to wreck, disrupt, or expose their delicate data.
Extortion is usually utilized in ransomware assaults, the place hackers usually exfiltrate firm knowledge earlier than demanding a ransom cost from the hacked sufferer. However extortion has rapidly grow to be its personal class of cybercrime, with many, typically youthful, financially motivated hackers, opting to hold out extortion-only assaults, which snub the usage of encryption in favor of easy knowledge theft.
(Additionally see: Ransomware)
Forensic investigations contain analyzing knowledge and knowledge contained in a pc, server, or cellular machine, on the lookout for proof of a hack, crime, or some form of malfeasance. Generally, to be able to entry the information, company or regulation enforcement investigators depend on specialised units and instruments, like these made by Cellebrite and Grayshift, that are designed to unlock and break the safety of computer systems and cellphones to entry the information inside.
There isn’t any one single definition of “hacker.” The time period has its personal wealthy historical past, tradition, and that means inside the safety neighborhood. Some incorrectly conflate hackers, or hacking, with wrongdoing.
By our definition and use, we broadly seek advice from a “hacker” as somebody who’s a “breaker of issues,” often by altering how one thing works to make it carry out in a different way to be able to meet their targets. In observe, that may be one thing so simple as repairing a machine with non-official elements to make it perform in a different way as supposed, or work even higher.
Within the cybersecurity sense, a hacker is usually somebody who breaks a system or breaks the safety of a system. That may very well be something from an internet-connected laptop system to a easy door lock. However the particular person’s intentions and motivations (if recognized) matter in our reporting, and guides how we precisely describe the particular person, or their exercise.
There are moral and authorized variations between a hacker who works as a safety researcher, who’s professionally tasked with breaking into an organization’s methods with their permission to determine safety weaknesses that may be fastened earlier than a malicious particular person has an opportunity to use them; and a malicious hacker who beneficial properties unauthorized entry to a system and steals knowledge with out acquiring anybody’s permission.
As a result of the time period “hacker” is inherently impartial, we usually apply descriptors in our reporting to supply context about who we’re speaking about. If we all know that a person works for a authorities and is contracted to maliciously steal knowledge from a rival authorities, we’re more likely to describe them as a nation-state or authorities hacker (or, if applicable, an superior persistent menace), for instance. If a gang is understood to make use of malware to steal funds from people’ financial institution accounts, we might describe them as financially motivated hackers, or if there’s proof of criminality or illegality (equivalent to an indictment), we might describe them merely as cybercriminals.
And, if we don’t know motivations or intentions, or an individual describes themselves as such, we might merely seek advice from a topic neutrally as a “hacker,” the place applicable.
(Additionally see: Superior persistent menace; Hacktivist; Unauthorized)
Generally, hacking and stealing knowledge is barely step one. In some circumstances, hackers then leak the stolen knowledge to journalists, or straight publish the information on-line for anybody to see. The objective could be both to embarrass the hacking sufferer, or to reveal alleged malfeasance.
The origins of recent hack-and-leak operations date again to the early- and mid-2000s, when teams like el8, pHC (“Phrack Excessive Council”) and zf0 had been concentrating on folks within the cybersecurity trade who, in line with these teams, had foregone the hacker ethos and had offered out. Later, there are the examples of hackers related to Nameless and leaking knowledge from U.S. authorities contractor HBGary, and North Korean hackers leaking emails stolen from Sony as retribution for the Hollywood comedy, The Interview.
Among the most up-to-date and well-known examples are the hack towards the now-defunct authorities adware pioneer Hacking Group in 2015, and the notorious Russian government-led hack-and-leak of Democratic Nationwide Committee emails forward of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Iranian authorities hackers tried to emulate the 2016 playbook through the 2024 elections.
A specific form of hacker who hacks for what they — and maybe the general public — understand as trigger, therefore the portmanteau of the phrases “hacker” and “activist.” Hacktivism has been round for greater than 20 years, beginning maybe with teams just like the Cult of the Useless Cow within the late Nineteen Nineties. Since then, there have been a number of excessive profile examples of hacktivist hackers and teams, equivalent to Nameless, LulzSec, and Phineas Fisher.
(Additionally see: Hacker)
Quick for “data safety,” another time period used to explain defensive cybersecurity centered on the safety of knowledge and knowledge. “Infosec” could also be the popular time period for trade veterans, whereas the time period “cybersecurity” has grow to be extensively accepted. In trendy instances, the 2 phrases have grow to be largely interchangeable.
Infostealers are malware able to stealing data from an individual’s laptop or machine. Infostealers are sometimes bundled in pirated software program, like Redline, which when put in will primarily hunt down passwords and different credentials saved within the particular person’s browser or password supervisor, then surreptitiously add the sufferer’s passwords to the attacker’s methods. This lets the attacker check in utilizing these stolen passwords. Some infostealers are additionally able to stealing session tokens from a consumer’s browser, which permit the attacker to check in to an individual’s on-line account as in the event that they had been that consumer however while not having their password or multifactor authentication code.
(See additionally: Malware)
Jailbreaking is utilized in a number of contexts to imply the usage of exploits and different hacking strategies to avoid the safety of a tool, or eradicating the restrictions a producer places on {hardware} or software program. Within the context of iPhones, for instance, a jailbreak is a method to take away Apple’s restrictions on putting in apps exterior of its “walled backyard” or to achieve the power to conduct safety analysis on Apple units, which is generally extremely restricted. Within the context of AI, jailbreaking means determining a option to get a chatbot to give out data that it’s not purported to.
The kernel, as its title suggests, is the core a part of an working system that connects and controls just about all {hardware} and software program. As such, the kernel has the very best degree of privileges, that means it has entry to just about any knowledge on the machine. That’s why, for instance, apps equivalent to antivirus and anti-cheat software program run on the kernel degree, as they require broad entry to the machine. Having kernel entry permits these apps to watch for malicious code.
Malware is a broad umbrella time period that describes malicious software program. Malware can land in lots of types and be used to use methods in several methods. As such, malware that’s used for particular functions can typically be known as its personal subcategory. For instance, the kind of malware used for conducting surveillance on folks’s units can also be known as “adware,” whereas malware that encrypts information and calls for cash from its victims is known as “ransomware.”
(See additionally: Infostealers; Ransomware; Spy ware)
Metadata is data about one thing digital, fairly than its contents. That may embrace particulars concerning the measurement of a file or doc, who created it, and when, or within the case of digital pictures, the place the picture was taken and details about the machine that took the photograph. Metadata might not determine the contents of a file, however it may be helpful in figuring out the place a doc got here from or who authored it. Metadata also can seek advice from details about an trade, equivalent to who made a name or despatched a textual content message, however not the contents of the decision or the message.
Ransomware is a sort of malicious software program (or malware) that forestalls machine homeowners from accessing its knowledge, usually by encrypting the particular person’s information. Ransomware is often deployed by cybercriminal gangs who demand a ransom cost — often cryptocurrency — in return for offering the non-public key to decrypt the particular person’s knowledge.
In some circumstances, ransomware gangs will steal the sufferer’s knowledge earlier than encrypting it, permitting the criminals to extort the sufferer additional by threatening to publish the information on-line. Paying a ransomware gang isn’t any assure that the sufferer will get their stolen knowledge again, or that the gang will delete the stolen knowledge.
One of many first-ever ransomware assaults was documented in 1989, wherein malware was distributed by way of floppy disk (an early type of detachable storage) to attendees of the World Well being Group’s AIDS convention. Since then, ransomware has developed into a multi-billion greenback legal trade as attackers refine their ways and hone in on big-name company victims.
(See additionally: Malware; Sanctions)
Distant code execution refers back to the skill to run instructions or malicious code (equivalent to malware) on a system from over a community, typically the web, with out requiring any human interplay from the goal. Distant code execution assaults can vary in complexity however could be extremely damaging when vulnerabilities are exploited.
(See additionally: Arbitrary code execution)
Cybersecurity-related sanctions work equally to conventional sanctions in that they make it unlawful for companies or people to transact with a sanctioned entity. Within the case of cyber sanctions, these entities are suspected of finishing up malicious cyber-enabled actions, equivalent to ransomware assaults or the laundering of ransom funds made to hackers.
The U.S. Treasury’s Workplace of International Property Management (OFAC) administers sanctions. The Treasury’s Cyber-Associated Sanctions Program was established in 2015 as a part of the Obama administration’s response to cyberattacks concentrating on U.S. authorities businesses and personal sector U.S. entities.
Whereas a comparatively new addition to the U.S. authorities’s bureaucratic armory towards ransomware teams, sanctions are more and more used to hamper and deter malicious state actors from conducting cyberattacks. Sanctions are sometimes used towards hackers who’re out of attain of U.S. indictments or arrest warrants, equivalent to ransomware crews primarily based in Russia.
A broad time period, like malware, that covers a spread of surveillance monitoring software program. Spy ware is usually used to seek advice from malware made by non-public firms, equivalent to NSO Group’s Pegasus, Intellexa’s Predator, and Hacking Group’s Distant Management System, amongst others, which the businesses promote to authorities businesses. In additional generic phrases, some of these malware are like distant entry instruments, which permits their operators — often authorities brokers — to spy and monitor their targets, giving them the power to entry a tool’s digicam and microphone or exfiltrate knowledge. Spy ware can also be known as industrial or authorities adware, or mercenary adware.
(See additionally: Stalkerware)
Stalkerware is a form of surveillance malware (and a type of adware) that’s often offered to unusual customers below the guise of kid or worker monitoring software program however is usually used for the needs of spying on the telephones of unwitting people, oftentimes spouses and home companions. The adware grants entry to the goal’s messages, location, and extra. Stalkerware usually requires bodily entry to a goal’s machine, which supplies the attacker the power to put in it straight on the goal’s machine, actually because the attacker is aware of the goal’s passcode.
(See additionally: Spy ware)
What are you making an attempt to guard? Who’re you fearful about that would go after you or your knowledge? How might these attackers get to the information? The solutions to those sorts of questions are what is going to lead you to create a menace mannequin. In different phrases, menace modeling is a course of that a company or a person has to undergo to design software program that’s safe, and devise strategies to safe it. A menace mannequin could be centered and particular relying on the scenario. A human rights activist in an authoritarian nation has a distinct set of adversaries, and knowledge, to guard than a big company in a democratic nation that’s fearful about ransomware, for instance.
After we describe “unauthorized” entry, we’re referring to the accessing of a pc system by breaking any of its security measures, equivalent to a login immediate or a password, which might be thought of unlawful below the U.S. Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act, or the CFAA. The Supreme Court docket in 2021 clarified the CFAA, discovering that accessing a system missing any technique of authorization — for instance, a database with no password — is just not unlawful, as you can’t break a safety function that isn’t there.
It’s value noting that “unauthorized” is a broadly used time period and sometimes utilized by firms subjectively, and as such has been used to explain malicious hackers who steal somebody’s password to interrupt in by way of to incidents of insider entry or abuse by workers.
A digital non-public community, or VPN, is a networking know-how that permits somebody to “just about” entry a personal community, equivalent to their office or residence, from wherever else on the planet. Many use a VPN supplier to browse the net, considering that this may also help to keep away from on-line surveillance.
TechCrunch has a skeptics’ information to VPNs that may make it easier to resolve if a VPN is sensible for you. If it does, we’ll present you easy methods to arrange your individual non-public and encrypted VPN server that solely you management. And if it doesn’t, we discover a few of the privateness instruments and different measures you may take to meaningfully enhance your privateness on-line.
A vulnerability (additionally known as a safety flaw) is a sort of bug that causes software program to crash or behave in an sudden manner that impacts the safety of the system or its knowledge. Generally, two or extra vulnerabilities can be utilized together with one another — often called “vulnerability chaining” — to achieve deeper entry to a focused system.
(See additionally: Bug; Exploit)
A zero-day is a selected kind of safety vulnerability that has been publicly disclosed or exploited however the vendor who makes the affected {hardware} or software program has not been given time (or “zero days”) to repair the issue. As such, there could also be no fast repair or mitigation to forestall an affected system from being compromised. This may be significantly problematic for internet-connected units.
(See additionally: Vulnerability)
First revealed on September 20, 2024. Final up to date on December 23, 2024.